My inclination for science was pretty prominent at an early age. As a boy, I loved playing with fire. My first “scientific” exploration was to burn a mixture of shampoo and syrup: I tried to tune the ratio to minimize the fume. At school age, I went even further: I caught spiders and placed them in my school desk together with some moldy bread. Sometimes, I fed mosquitoes with my blood, watching silently as its belly filled up.
These early experiences naturally developed into my passion for science, leading me to pick biochemistry and chemistry as my college major. I learned fundamental theories and worked on enjoyable research projects. For a long time, science has been purely about intellectual satisfaction: it answers my quest to understand things around me.
The year 2007 weighed heavily in my life. For several weeks, I was unconsciously exposed to a volatile neurotoxin. The outbreak occurred during one midnight: I exhibited a seizure like symptom and within 20 minutes I experienced a drastic drop of my body temperature. I slowly lost consciousness in my toes, and then my feet, and legs and my chest. In the face of death, I was utterly powerless. Fortunately, my roommate discovered me and I was saved.
This death to life conversion led me to ask myself: How to define my values? What constitutes real wealth? I started to realize that true happiness lies not in the ability to consume, but the power to create. All of a sudden, my passion for science gained a new purpose: to discover and to create something that benefits people around.
I asked myself three basic questions: What issues affect the most people but receive the least attention and resources? What are the most effective ways to help large numbers of people overcome hunger and poverty? Where can we have impact over time that is scalable and sustainable --- both economically and environmentally?
Time and again, I find the answer in innovative agriculture. I wish one day, technologies may enable high yield drought resistance food crops. I wish one day, maize can obtain resistance to rust disease. I wish one day, we can engineer the nitrogen fixation pathway into crops.
In seeking for a route towards my dream, I encountered the idea of synthetic biology. The early success of Prof. Keasling’s artemisinin biosynthesis in yeast is a great proof of concept. A lot of fundamental work and methodologies still needs to be developed before we can replicate the artemisinin story. It probably takes at least another ten to twenty years before synthetic biology technologies can be transferred into agriculture. Currently, synthetic biology is endowed with a golden opportunity: the dual problem of oil security and global warming pushes biofuel production towards the frontier. Building on previous work, can we engineer microorganism to produce hydrocarbon fuels? To me, the ambition to convert a million-year oil formation into a weeks’ process is tremendously exciting.
Recently, I drafted my own long term 20-year philanthropic scheme to support children in extreme poverty. Within those regions whose families live under $1 per day, I took a portion of my earnings to support their children. The first two nations I chose were China (my motherland) and Sri Lanka (which has just experienced a civil war). Within the next few years, I will expand my donation efforts first to India and later to Africa regions. My vision is: For the next twenty years, I will pursue on the scientific side to develop high yield drought resistant food crops that can grow in lean soil. Twenty years later, these children would have grown up into their early twenties. Collectively, they could form a multi-continental force to facilitate the spread of seeds across their nation and educate more people about sustainable agriculture. The influence is scalable due to the replication nature of biology. I will stick to my commitment because I believe this is my destiny, the very purpose I was given a second chance of living.
All these thoughts accumulate through time, and they motivate me to pursue a graduate program in bioengineering. I hope within my limited life-time, I may contribute to a portion of the solutions.
Do science, do good.
My inclination for science was pretty prominent at an early age. As a boy, I loved playing with fire. My first “scientific” exploration was to burn a mixture of shampoo and syrup: I tried to tune the ratio to minimize the fume. At school age, I went even further: I caught spiders and placed them in my school desk together with some moldy bread. Sometimes, I fed mosquitoes with my blood, watching silently as its belly filled up.
These early experiences naturally developed into my passion for science, leading me to pick biochemistry and chemistry as my college major. I learned fundamental theories and worked on enjoyable research projects. For a long time, science has been purely about intellectual satisfaction: it answers my quest to understand things around me.
The year 2007 weighed heavily in my life. For several weeks, I was unconsciously exposed to a volatile neurotoxin. The outbreak occurred during one midnight: I exhibited a seizure like symptom and within 20 minutes I experienced a drastic drop of my body temperature. I slowly lost consciousness in my toes, and then my feet, and legs and my chest. In the face of death, I was utterly powerless. Fortunately, my roommate discovered me and I was saved.
This death to life conversion led me to ask myself: How to define my values? What constitutes real wealth? I started to realize that true happiness lies not in the ability to consume, but the power to create. All of a sudden, my passion for science gained a new purpose: to discover and to create something that benefits people around.
I asked myself three basic questions: What issues affect the most people but receive the least attention and resources? What are the most effective ways to help large numbers of people overcome hunger and poverty? Where can we have impact over time that is scalable and sustainable --- both economically and environmentally?
Time and again, I find the answer in innovative agriculture. I wish one day, technologies may enable high yield drought resistance food crops. I wish one day, maize can obtain resistance to rust disease. I wish one day, we can engineer the nitrogen fixation pathway into crops.
In seeking for a route towards my dream, I encountered the idea of synthetic biology. The early success of Prof. Keasling’s artemisinin biosynthesis in yeast is a great proof of concept. A lot of fundamental work and methodologies still needs to be developed before we can replicate the artemisinin story. It probably takes at least another ten to twenty years before synthetic biology technologies can be transferred into agriculture. Currently, synthetic biology is endowed with a golden opportunity: the dual problem of oil security and global warming pushes biofuel production towards the frontier. Building on previous work, can we engineer microorganism to produce hydrocarbon fuels? To me, the ambition to convert a million-year oil formation into a weeks’ process is tremendously exciting.
Recently, I drafted my own long term 20-year philanthropic scheme to support children in extreme poverty. Within those regions whose families live under $1 per day, I took a portion of my earnings to support their children. The first two nations I chose were China (my motherland) and Sri Lanka (which has just experienced a civil war). Within the next few years, I will expand my donation efforts first to India and later to Africa regions. My vision is: For the next twenty years, I will pursue on the scientific side to develop high yield drought resistant food crops that can grow in lean soil. Twenty years later, these children would have grown up into their early twenties. Collectively, they could form a multi-continental force to facilitate the spread of seeds across their nation and educate more people about sustainable agriculture. The influence is scalable due to the replication nature of biology. I will stick to my commitment because I believe this is my destiny, the very purpose I was given a second chance of living.
All these thoughts accumulate through time, and they motivate me to pursue a graduate program in bioengineering. I hope within my limited life-time, I may contribute to a portion of the solutions.
Do science, do good.